Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Welcome to the August Carnival of Natural Parenting: Creating With Kids

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how they make messes and masterpieces with children. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

How to build a butterfly house in 11 easy steps

One day Mikko was charming the socks off a Home Depot worker, who gifted him with a child-size apron, workshop pin, and butterfly house kit. She asked me if he were five years old — he was, I believe, two at the time — but then said he could have the kit anyway.

So we put it away, but not till he was five. Earlier this year, I got all ambitious and decided: We were making a butterfly house, dang it!

This is a good summery project for you and your little ones. Just be sure to follow all the steps precisely.

Step 5: Put philips-head screwdriver in nail hole and spin.

Step 6: Use needle-nose pliers on nails to do … something.

Step 8: Insert rope through the slits.

Step 9: Perform some sort of woodworking magic involving a wrench and rope and hex driver.

Step 10: Voila! It’s done! Time to decorate.

Step 11: Wait for warm weather, and then insert sliced bananas. (Do not reverse the order.)

With heartfelt appreciation to Sam for picking out the photos and helping with captions.

Now, presuming you actually do want to make a butterfly house and don't have a conveniently gifted kit, here are the basics, yo:

Get some thin wood. Plywood or scraps should do nicely.

The sides are shaped like a rectangle with a right-angle triangle on top. The back is a tall rectangle, the front a shorter rectangle. They all fit together like the picture, see? The bottom is a square that fits flush with the other pieces. The roof is a rectangle that overlaps the opening a little on all sides.

Cut long, thin slits in the front piece. This is how butterflies get in. I'm hope they remember to fold their wings before they leave or they'll think they're stuck. Butterflies are probably pretty dumb.

Sand the wood. (Mikko got one step right.)

Use wood glue and then short nails to attach the side pieces to the back.

Do the same to attach the front piece.

Do the same to attach the bottom.

For the roof, hammer one nail into the back center. It should then swivel so you can open and close the top.

Put in some twigs and leaves or moss, along with a few pieces of ripe (or overripe) fruit. Hang it up, and wait for butterfly visitors!

Creating With Kids: 4 Ways That Work For Us — See how Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings nurtures creativity with her kids through craft projects, outdoor creative play, celebrating the creative process, and setting up "little spaces of beauty."

Creating memories, not things — Mrs. Green from Little Green Blog reflects on life with a ten year old and how 'creating together' has evolved from 'things' to memories.

The Gift of Creation — It may be hot, but Kellie at Our Mindful Life is already thinking about winter.

Creating Joy — CatholicMommy at Working to be Worthy shares how she and her one year-old son create joy for their community.

How to do Crafts with Kids — Gaby from Tmuffin guest posts at Natural Parents Network and describes how to keep things simple when doing crafts with kids for magical (easy-to-clean, and tantrum-free) results.

LOL @ the hammer, that's brilliant. The final project is sheer perfection, especially the decorating. I love how this project incorporates construction and nature and even empathy- wanting to build a house for the butterflies!

Mikko is such an adept craftsman! I love when places like Home Depot have cute gifts for kids. All sorts of crap about Big Corporations and whatever aside, it's really nice that places still do things like that. Hopefully you find your crafting to be fruitful and are graced with some beautiful butterflies taking up residence in the butterfly house! Great pictures!

Oh, fun! I didn't even know there was such a thing as a butterfly house, and I love butterflies. I guess I've gotta get me one of those, pronto. Mikko is adorable, as usual, and it looks like he had lots of fun creating!

I love the use of real tools (of course, the photo with the inflatable hammer is awesome)! How wonderful that Mikko experienced the whole process ... and great concentrated expressions in the photos. Very cool! :)

@CatholicMommy: It's true — I'm a big believer in letting kids use "real" things. I like that it helps them learn how to use them, and usually that's what they're attracted to anyway — as I found out after many failed attempts to give Mikko toy cellphones. ;)

I also have to say, since I didn't talk much about why we did this project with him, or why we did it this way, that you all picked up on our philosophy anyway! Maybe I should shut up more. :)

@lovenotesmama: The hammer is a greatly loved Puyallup Fair win. :) It was one of those hit the (real, big) hammer on the pad and see if it rings the bell games, but for toddlers, so everyone won one of those inflatable hammers! He was in heaven.

@panda: Exactly! I'm torn about that very thing, because several (not all) of the small stores around us are kind of snotty toward kids (even a couple toy stores we go to!!), whereas when we go to the big box places, they're usually so gracious and welcoming toward families. Kind of a tangent, sorry, but it's something I've been thinking about!

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Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.